The invention to which this application relates is the provision of an indication means which allows a user of electrical apparatus which includes a memory to be provided with an indication of the mode of operation of the memory and the apparatus in general. In particular, the invention is directed towards the provision of a hard disk memory installed in electrical apparatus which is capable of receiving and processing digital data which is broadcast from a remote location.
The invention is particularly directed towards the relative new form of electrical apparatus which is provided with the facility to receive digital data which is broadcast from a remote location and transmitted to the receiver via any of satellite, cable or terrestrial broadcast systems. The digital data which is transmitted and received is processed by the receiver decoding the data from the encoded format in which the data is broadcast, compiling streams of the data and subsequent transmission of the data in video and/or audio format, typically via a television set connected to the receiver or which has the receiver provided as an integral part thereof, in the form of recognizable television programs.
The use of digital data broadcast systems has meant that a large number of television channels can now be received via said receivers and, while this has considerably increased the choice to the user it also has meant that the user is typically not able to watch all of the programs and/or information which they may wish to watch as it is transmitted at the same time. In order to solve this problem, receiver apparatus is now developed which includes a memory, typically a hard disk memory, which is of sufficient capacity to allow the storage of received data which relates to part of or one or a number of designated television programs and from which data the audio and/or video and/or text can be generated at a later time. This memory can be controlled by the user of the apparatus to store or record data from selected sources, the playing of the programs generated from the stored data can be selected and facilities can be provided which allows the user to search through the data at speed in forwards or backwards directions as well as having the ability to “stop” the program at particular times. While this facility is undoubtedly of benefit there is a need for the user to be able to identify and distinguish the mode of operation of the memory in the receiver apparatus at any time and the aim of the present invention is to provide an indication means which allows this indication to be provided.